MacMillan, who has led the $905 billion grocery chain since 2011, has received total compensation of about $27.5 million. he is About to retire At the end of the month and exiting at currency highs; in his final year as CEO, MacMillan was paid $1.5 million in salary, along with $20.4 million in stock awards and $4.4 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation.
Very different from salary his first walmart job. The outgoing CEO started working at the company’s warehouse in the summer of 1984, unloading trailers for $6.50 an hour. That’s 481 times less than the $3,127 per hour he earned on average as CEO. Even within a minute, he blew that number out of the water, making about $52 in 60 seconds.
Now, it takes less than 20 hours Walmart By 2025, CEOs will earn approximately $62,088 more than the average U.S. worker annually First quarter wage data From the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While it might take Americans decades to save up enough money to buy a home, McMillan could afford it in a working week. According to one company, it took the CEO just 5.85 days to earn $439,000, the median price of a home in the United States. CEO compensation tool from resume.ai. During the time American workers spend the dreaded 30-minute commute to the office, McMillon has earned $1,563. Every second, the CEO sees his bank account grow by nearly $1.
wealth Contact Walmart for comment.
While CEOs are getting record-breaking salaries, Americans are struggling
Macmillan is just one of many CEOs who have made headlines for their high salaries.
At the end of last year, leaders Tesla and the richest man in the world, Elon Muskobtained $1 trillion compensation package At his electric car company, spark criticism The wealth gap between the world’s richest and poorest workers is growing.
and Tim CookThe CEO of a $3.8 trillion tech giant appleRevenue in 2024 will be $74.6 million, an increase of 18% from $63.2 million in the previous year. It only took Cook about seven hours Already exceeded The typical American worker can afford the average American home in 2.15 days. But he’s not even the highest-paid CEO to lead a large, multi-billion-dollar U.S. public company. Rick SmithCEO of Axon, a $45.5 billion defense technology company come home a huge According to statistics, $164.5 million analyze from Equilar.
Meanwhile, America’s poorest people are not enjoying the fruits of their employers’ success. In July this year, after-tax wages for workers in the lowest-income group in the United States increased only 1.3% year-on-year, down from 1.6% last month. according to Bank of America graduate School. Over the same period, wages for top earners rose to 3.2% – the third consecutive month of increases. This marks the largest wealth gap between low- and high-income households in four years.
“In some ways, low-income wage growth has improved since the pandemic, but now that’s reversed,” said David Tinsley, senior economist at the American Banking Institute. Tell wealth This August. “Wealth inequality was shrinking and now it’s widening.”
However, some companies are stepping up their efforts to ensure employees get a fair share of success. Samsung A new three-year plan was reportedly launched last year to pay employees based on the company’s share price from October 2025 to the same month in 2028 Report from Bloomberg. The plan also gives employees the option to receive up to half of their payouts in stock instead of cash. Prior to this monetary move, the only other example Samsung As part of the union agreement, Samsung distributed 30 shares of stock to employees, who received the stock.
Even billionaires are grappling with the growing gap between rich and poor. respond to a Oxfam ResearchBillionaire wealth increased by $33 trillion between 2015 and 2025, according to entrepreneur Mark Cuban’s findings point out wealth The reason for the surge is because “the stock market is skyrocketing.” He called on workers to get a share of the pie.
“You know who’s funding this growth, especially lately? Retail investors. 401ks,” Cuban write on X last year. “The better question is, why don’t we provide incentives to companies that require them to give all employees shares in the company in the same proportion of their cash earnings as the CEO?”